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Editorial: For now, expansion makes sense

Louisiana’s long-delayed journey into expanded Medicaid coverage, which was launched this month, will at least for now guarantee more professional health care for more people in our state, including the working poor.

Louisiana’s long-delayed journey into expanded Medicaid coverage, which was launched this month, will at least for now guarantee more professional health care for more people in our state, including the working poor.

For that reason alone — the hope of better health outcomes for more of our fellow citizens — Louisianians should take satisfaction. Gov. John Bel Edwards approved Medicaid expansion in January; it became official July 1.

There’s no guarantee that expanded coverage will remain in effect in its present form or at all. There are plenty of challenges: Many health-care providers are reluctant to accept Medicaid patients because reimbursement is low, while Medicaid costs are rising.

It was difficult to fault Edwards' enthusiasm, though: 30 other states were reaping Medicaid expansion benefits before Louisiana. Those states drew additional federal funding, while Louisiana, which refused Medicaid expansion under Gov. Bobby Jindal, had declined to take the money. The big losers, of course, were Louisiana people who had limited or no access to health care, care that Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program, helps provide. Those who missed out included the 13 percent of the population that was uninsured and about a quarter of Louisiana’s 4 million people who live in poverty.

Daryl Cetnar, Lafayette General Health System spokesman, said expanded Medicaid will help Louisiana’s working poor as well as the state’s charity hospital system. Charity hospitals cannot turn indigent patients away, and the costs for their health care is heavy. Expansion will infuse money into the hospitals.

Medicaid expansion benefits adults ages 19-64 with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. That includes single people earning up to $16,400 a year and families of four with incomes up to $33,500. Those who benefit include thousands of Louisiana people who labor at low-pay jobs, people who try to support themselves and their families but cannot afford health insurance.

In Lafayette, expansion means more of the working poor can access health care, most likely at University Hospital & Clinics, the state charity hospital that is part of the LGHS network. Cetnar said Medicaid patients can call a number, 337-261-6500, to schedule appointments with UHC’s primary health care providers.

Access to primary health care at UHC will empower patients to receive routine but necessary health check-ups. It will give them access to UHC specialists and it will give them the opportunity to lead healthier lifestyles. That routine care keeps them away from hospital emergency rooms, where the poor and uninsured often go for routine care when their health breaks down.

More than 200,000 Louisianians signed up for Medicaid by July 1, the day Louisiana's expansion began. As many as 375,000 will enroll, the Edwards administration suggests. That's a lot of need.